#5 in Top 20 London for Business · ★★★★★
The Dorchester
Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one.
Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one.
"Park Lane address, Promenade afternoon tea for the soft-meeting, Alain Ducasse for the hard one."
The Dorchester opened on Park Lane in 1931, served as an unofficial Allied planning base during the Second World War (Eisenhower worked on D-Day plans here), and remains the largest of the Park Lane palace hotels. There are 250 rooms and suites; the Penthouse Suite, at 8,500 square feet with three bedrooms and two private terraces, is among the largest hotel suites in London. The Promenade, the lobby tea room with its Edwardian columns and live pianist, is the default daytime meeting room. Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, three Michelin stars and the only London restaurant by Ducasse, is the business-dinner room. The Bar, reopened after a major refurbishment, and the China Tang restaurant handle the after-meeting hours. The honest caveat: the Dorchester is traditional and can feel formal next to newer Mayfair arrivals, so a client who wants contemporary will be happier at the Bulgari or the Connaught. It is the right pick for the Park Lane business trip where the address, the apartment-grade suite product, and proximity to the sovereign-wealth offices a few minutes' walk away are the point.
Penthouse Suite (8,500 sq ft, three bedrooms) or the Harlequin Suite, the flagship. For an entry-level room, a Park Suite faces Park Lane.
The Promenade for 3.30pm tea; the table near the central column is the editor's table. Alain Ducasse at 7.30pm is the business dinner; ask for the table near the kitchen window. China Tang is the more discreet alternative for client dinners.
The Dorchester sits within our broader Top 20 Hotels in London for Business list. It scored an aggregate 9.8/10 across the three editorial criteria, competitive against the field but, on business-specific factors, the angle above is what earned its rank. For the alternatives in the same London neighbourhood, see Mayfair, Park Lane and adjacent. For a different city entirely, see the related lists below.
Have firm dates? Our editor's advice is to book roughly twelve weeks in advance. The best suites with the right view orientation go first, and inventory for the popular months is quoted in months, not weeks. It is the terrace and plunge-pool suites, the rooms this rank rests on, that book up soonest.
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